SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Second Language Acquisition

Second Language Acquisition

Introduction

Language is a universal human trait. It is a mean to communicate our thoughts and express our feelings. Without a language that is clearly spoken and understood, we would really not have a tool to interact with other humans. Not only is a language universal and dynamic, it also has certain universally acclaimed characteristics that are unique to it. Human beings are not the only ones to use language as a communication medium. Plants and animals communicate too. For example, honey bees dance when they locate their food or nectar. Whales produce sonic codes to interact with other whales. Similar is the use of a language by human. It has some special attributes and characteristics

Language is a tool that is widely used by humans of all ages and groups. We live life in and through our language. Language structures our thoughts and expressions in meaningful forms and shapes our social presence. It builds our relationship with the world around us. It helps us in retaining a presence in the universe with the help of developing our own unique ideas, opinions, and views; using nothing but, a language.

The Nature of Language

There are different theories that are related explicitly or implicitly to the nature of language. However three main aspects of the nature of language are being presented here:

The Structural view of Language:

Language can be viewed a system of structurally related elements that transmit different meanings. It is made up of sentences, clauses, and phrases usually on a defined grammatical pattern that forms meaningful sentences.

The Communicative view of Language

This view reinforces the communicative and semantic perspective of the nature of language. Language is used as a vehicle to obtain meanings out of words (New, 2004).

The Interactional view of Language

This view observes language as a mean to develop interpersonal relationships with other individuals and as a facilitator to perform social transactions. It si primarily a mean to initiate and maintain conversations with other people (New, 2004).

Values and principles applied to language

All the cultures in the world incorporate languages, but it was language itself that started distinguishing one group of people from the other and developed different cultures. When we sue different languages, it creates social institutions and the ideologies that shape them. Language presents the abstract ideas in a meaningful form, and this led to the formation of different cultures.

Based on our SLA reading, we can say that it is the language that one uses to interact with others and share opinions. These opinions are distinguished in the society and vary from person to person. Therefore, when a handful of people sharing the similar values and beliefs are taken together, a culture is formed. These people are particular about how they interact and what they speak about. They hold their so formed cultures in high respect. And it is the language that reinforces such a behavior in society.

Based on our experiences too, we can further support our point of ...